Wealth should be spread fairly, says Vatican official on global trade

Published: 2005-12-22

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The goal of free trade should be to help spread the world's riches fairly to all people and not to defend already privileged economic powers, said a Vatican representative at a recent World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong. "Trade relations can no longer be based solely on the principle of free, unchecked competition, for it very often creates an economic dictatorship," said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, quoting from Pope Paul VI's 1967 encyclical, "Populorum Progressio." "Free trade can be called just only when it conforms to the demands of social justice," the archbishop said in a Dec. 18 address to members of the sixth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization. The Dec. 13-18 conference was part of the Doha Round, which had a stated aim of leveling the playing field for poor countries that are already at a trade disadvantage. Archbishop Tomasi represents the Vatican before Geneva-based U.N. organizations. His address was released by the Vatican Dec. 22.

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